Faculty of Medicine

Mission

Mission of the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases

The Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases (GCEVD) is a joint institution of the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) - with the aim to understand and prevent the spread of emerging and re-emerging viruses, by providing diagnostic capacity combined with clinical expertise and basic research.

We believe that only in this interdisciplinary approach we will be able to tackle the global challenges of the future posed by novel viruses and their pandemic risks.

The goal of the Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases is the connection of all services working in the field of viral infectious diseases within the Geneva University Hospitals (Infectious Diseases, Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, Vaccinology Center, Virology Laboratory and National Reference Center for Emerging Viral Infections), the Institute of Global Health and the virus research groups of the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva. Beyond this, we aim to foster and enhance our partnerships within the international Geneva (governmental and non-governmental organizations).

The recent Ebola outbreak has demonstrated the high level of human and technical expertise available in our two institutions: Geneva was the first center designated by the Worl Health Organization (WHO) to test the most promising Ebola vaccine and the HUGs have been among the very few European hospitals that have successfully treated a patient infected with Ebola. Furthermore, the HUG has the only diagnostic laboratory hosted by a hospital in Switzerland with the highest level of biosecurity.

The term "emerging" is not exclusively limited to novel and exotic viruses, but the Centre has an additional focus on the complex viral syndromes seen in high-resource countries in hospitalized patients (chronic viral infection, infection of the immunocompromised host).

The core mission of the Centre are:

A competent up-to-date diagnostic platform for Switzerland, available 24/24h and 7/7d.

Interdisciplinary, cross-cutting research on emerging viruses at the fundamental, translational and clinical level

Expertise for viral diseases including complex viral syndromes in patients hospitalized at the HUG